Pacquiao unbothered, Pimentel to contest Comelec ruling on PDP-Laban

Presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao said on Friday he was not bothered by the resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) recognizing the faction of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the legitimate PDP-Laban party.

The boxing icon said he would instead focus on the remaining days of his campaign before the May 9 elections.

“Sa ngayon nasa kalagitnaan tayo ng patapos nang pagkampanya natin at hindi yan ang iniisip natin," Pacquiao said in a media briefing in Cebu City.

(We are in the middle of our campaign which is about to end and we are not thinking of it at the moment.)

Pacquiao, meanwhile, assured PDP-Laban members under their wing that Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III would be on top of the situation.

“Hayaan na muna natin si Koko na sumagot diyan. Kung ano man ang problema, 'yung mga PDP members na naniniwala sa aming kakayahan ay hindi namin sila pababayaan,” Pacquiao said, adding that they will challenge the Comelec ruling before the Supreme Court after the May 9 elections.

Pacquiao runs under the Probinsya Muna Development Initiative or PROMDI, but the Pimentel faction of the PDP-Laban also nominated him to be its presidential candidate.

In another statement, Pimentel, the son and namesake of former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, the founder of the PDP-Laban said its grassroots party members were enraged over the Comelec's decision “recognizing the hijacking of the party.”

Pimentel stressed the petition of the Cusi wing to declare the Pimentel faction as “illegitimate” PDP-Laban was “fatally defective.” He said it was only filed for and on behalf of a political party “without any board resolution authorizing its filings.”

He also claimed the lawyer who signed the petition did not have an updated MCLE (Mandatory Continuing Legal Education) requirement.

"The Comelec will be asked to explain to us why they referred the fatally defective petition to a Division without even informing us, as we are a party to the case. Why the little secrecy?" he said.

"Those of us who have known only one political party, the PDP-Laban, and have been with PDP-Laban for 40 long years will now be separated from our party because of Sec. Cusi who joined the party 5 years ago, and his group of people who are outsiders and strangers to the party?" Pimentel added.                                           
Cusi lauded the Comelec “for their wise decision declaring and recognizing the current officers and members as the real PDP Laban party under the chairmanship of President Duterte.”—LDF, GMA News